1997
March 10 - An underaged computer user and sysop in Worcester, MA, succeeds in shutting down an FAA control tower for six hours. He is tracked and arrested, and eventually given probation, community service, the need to pay restitution, and loss of his computer and modem. * April 23 - Cott Lang, programmer of the Renegade BBS software (itself a derivative of Telegard BBS Software) turns the maintenance and development of the package over to Patrick Spence. * June - Over the course of the month of June, Clark Development Corporation (makers of PCBoard and MetaWorlds) shuts down operations and begins auctioning off equipment, citing lack of funding and a need to prevent incurring more debt. They do not recover. * August - The ANSI group iCE welcomes The Night Daemon, Levi Dedi, into their group as a VGA/Hirez artist. Sadly, two months later he commits suicide after being cut off from the Internet (and his connection to iCE) by his mother. * October - David Perrussel founds the "BBS Corner Telnet BBS Guide". * October 15 - Levi Dedi, also known as "The Night Daemon" of the ANSI Groups Fuel and iCE, commits suicide by jumping from his 9th story apartment window in Israel. His mother had shut off their phone line for outgoing calls, cutting him off from the Internet and sending him into a spiraling depression. * October 16 - The Web Copyright Law is signed by President Clinton. An infringement of property valued at least $1000 may be prosecuted even if the violator does not profit from the crime. Penalties range from $100,000-$250,000. For infringements against properties >$2,500 a jail term of up to 3 years may be imposed. A second offense may result in a jail term of up to 6 years. What this translates to is that the previous copying of programs and disks for the use of trade is finally made illegal and a prosecutable crime. * November 8 - Rodney Aloia, Sysop of the Index BBS in Georgia, dies of massive head injuries while preparing to go on a skydiving run (he had over 250 jumps under his belt at the time). The Index BBS, at 60 lines, is one of the largest BBSes in the southeast United States, and incredibly, his friends and colleagues continue to run the BBS in his memory, scaling back phone lines but maintaining the BBS to the present day. The INDEX BBS had been founded in 1983 by Aloia. * December - The rights to the RemoteAccess BBS Software is sold by creator Andrew Milner to Bruce Morse in an online auction. Morse goes on to release updates to the software, including a Y2K compliant version. * December 13 - Mystic BBS Version 0.01 Released. * December 16 - Bill Clinton signed the "No Electronic Theft Act" and it became Public Law 105-147. It is now a criminal act to trade a copyrighted work with a friend. It is now a criminal act to reproduce or distribute, during any 180-day period, copyrighted works with a total retail value of more than $1,000. The statue of limitations for such acts was extended to five years. Senator Orrin Hatch said "this bill plugs the 'LaMacchia Loophole' in criminal copyright enforcement." Source * Scott, Jason. The TEXTFILES.COM BBS Timeline. http://timeline.textfiles.com/1997/